APRNEWS - Fadel Abdel Kefi, the head of the Afek Tounes party, said police stopped him at Carthage international airport and prevented him travelling, but without any judicial warrant.

The move comes a day after police started investigating a domestic journalist over an article critical of the prime minister and in the run-up to legislative elections that Saied's opponents have decried as undemocratic.

Saied seized broad powers last year, shut down the elected parliament and held a referendum to enshrine near absolute presidential power buttressed by a weakened legislature in a new constitution.

An Interior Ministry official told Reuters a Tunis court had issued a judicial decision to prevent Abdel Kefi from travelling, adding that the ministry was not empowered to take such a step independently.

Abdel Kefi told Reuters he had not been made aware of any judicial decision against him. "Is it reasonable for a decision to be issued without my knowledge?" he said, calling the move a "violation of a basic right".

Rights groups have warned that Saied's moves have put at risk Tunisia's democracy and the rights and freedoms won after a 2011 revolution.

However, there has been no major campaign of arrests or crackdown on dissent, and Saied has denied having dictatorial ambitions.

Abdel Kafi has emerged in recent months as a prominent critic of the president's seizure of most powers, saying he acts like a king and has not improved governance or saved the faltering economy.

He has also called for most of Saied's new constitution to be revoked and for a balance of power between different branches of government to be restored.

Source : Reuters